


Temptations

by Queen_of_the_Nerds



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Angel Takumi, Angst with a Happy Ending, Demon Leo, Forbidden Love, I doubt there will be any full violence though, Implied/Referenced Torture, Implied/Referenced Violence, M/M, Probably some angst later on, Rated teen mostly for swearing, ooh drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-09-27
Packaged: 2020-10-29 07:04:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20792615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Queen_of_the_Nerds/pseuds/Queen_of_the_Nerds
Summary: Leo, a demon, and Takumi, an angel, try and get along for the sake of a good book and a nice coffee shop. But what will happen when others start to learn of their friendship?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to start this by saying that this is not based on or influenced by Good Omens. I’ve been told there are some similarities (and I could see them a bit myself after I watched the show), but I started this a long time before I ever watched or read Good Omens lmao

The scene opens. The audience is treated to a rather terrible view of a set of slightly grimy oak doors, which were set into an equally dusty stone wall. The dingy, low-ceilinged hallway that boasted said doors had no decoration or colour in it at all; not even so much as a carpet for the chilly stone floor. It was as if the architect had set out to create the most boring building possible, and had really outdone himself with this particular stretch of hallway.

From behind the oak doors, a voice rang out;

“That damn feathery bastard, always sticking his nose into other people’s business! He had no proof I was going to do anything wrong!”

“Leo?” The owner of the second voice was decidedly amused.

“Yes?”

“You’re a demon.”

“I’m perfectly aware of that, thank you. What does it have to do with anything?”

“The whole point of being a demon is to do the wrong thing.”

“Niles!” Leo snapped. “Stop trying to pretend to be reasonable. You think he’s a pain in the ass as much as I do.”

“That’s true,” Niles mused, “but the way he drives you up the wall is endlessly entertaining.”

“You are absolutely no help,” Leo huffed, stalking out of the room with just a tad more theatricality than the situation demanded.

Now normally this would be the perfect opportunity to say that Leo acted as if someone had ruffled his feathers - and while he certainly did, it would be an entirely inaccurate statement. You see, unlike their angelic counterparts, demons don’t have feathers. They do have wings, of course, that’s par for the course, but they’re more akin to bat’s wings than anything else. Bat’s wings but... classier.

I don’t recommend ever describing a demon’s wings like that to its face, however, unless you are prepared to end up with a few bat-like features of your own. They can be rather creative when it comes to punishments.

After storming out on Niles, Leo found himself at a loose end; usually he’d spend his free time hiding in his room, but unfortunately that was the room he had just left Niles in and his pride wouldn’t allow himself to go back in so soon after he had left. Wandering the hallways was out of the question as well; the place where Leo lived, often referred to affectionately by humans as hell (or sometimes purgatory, when an unfortunate human soul tried to be optimistic about the place they found themselves in), was a seemingly endless maze of identical stone hallways dotted with rooms - some functional, some not, all of them dull.

When people think of hell, they usually picture flaming pits and pitchforks - what they fail to consider is that there is a special kind of torture to be found in monotony and unoriginality. Even some of the demons struggled to spend extended amounts of time in this hell.

The much more entertaining option was for Leo to go and cause a little chaos amongst the humans - while hopefully avoiding a certain angel he had been complaining about just moments prior.

And by chaos, for Leo that usually meant causing mild inconveniences; he found it much more entertaining to cause someone to spill coffee on their white business shirt and watch them panic about the important meeting they had in five minutes than it was to cause, say, mass murder. Not that he was really against murder, per se, coffee was just more subtle and less messy. As a demon he was required to cause chaos, and this was the easiest way for him to do so.

Unfortunately, luck was not on his side (in fact, luck usually makes a point of being more of a neutral party). Not even fifteen seconds after he strolled into his favourite coffee shop did Leo see the angel, Takumi. Takumi was sat in the back of the shop with a book in hand, getting feathers all over Leo’s favourite booth. Takumi hadn’t noticed Leo yet, but that would soon change as Leo had absolutely no intention of letting an angel have his favourite seat.

Takumi only looked up when Leo’s shadow fell across his book, glaring with silver eyes at Leo over the top of the pages.

“Takumi.” Leo greeted.

“Leo,” Takumi replied coldly, “What do you want?”

“This is my favourite booth in this store. I would like it back.” It was petty, perhaps, but Leo could admit to himself that he wasn’t above being petty.

“I wasn’t aware I could take a public seat from anyone,” Takumi sneered.

“I have been coming to this spot every day for months, and I haven’t seen you here this whole time. I dare say I have more of a claim to this seat than you do.”

“Well I’m not leaving.”

“Neither am I.”

“Then it seems we’ve reached a stalemate.”

Leo heaved a sigh and sat himself in the booth next to Takumi. It was a little squishy with their wings pressed against each other in the small space, and incredibly awkward.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Takumi snapped, colour high in his cheeks, drawing his silver-white wings closer.

“Well,” Leo sighed, leaning back against his seat (and ultimately regretting it when he hit his horns on the small shelf above him), “neither of us were going to leave and I certainly wasn’t going to spend all my time here standing up.”

“I don’t want to spend my time here sitting next to the likes of you!”

“Then feel free to leave.”

Takumi grumbled to himself a bit more, but ultimately opted to disappear behind his book again, unwilling to leave. Leo could appreciate why he wanted to stay; the coffee shop was cosy, decorated with bookshelves - some of which contained books, others housed antiques and potted plants. As far as he knew, no other angels or demons ever came here, and he knew for a fact that he would not be monitored while in this store - it was the perfect place to escape.

Leo glanced at the cover of the book that Takumi was reading and did a double take - it was one of his favourite books, a philosophical exploration of the impact different events of the past had on modern society. Leo had even opened his mouth to comment before thinking the better of it, opting to squint red eyes at the book instead. Even if Takumi had a surprisingly good taste in literature, he was still an angel - and a fucking annoying one at that, who always took it upon himself to ruin whatever Leo might be doing.

Leo, unfortunately, had zoned out while looking at the cover of Takumi’s book and wasn’t exactly subtle with his staring.

“Well?” Takumi snapped, “are you going to say anything or are you going to keep gaping like a dead fish?”

Leo flushed, surprised not just at being caught but at the fact that he was staring in the first place.

“I was simply surprised at the book you were reading. I wasn’t aware you angels could read.” He decided breaking out his usual haughty sneer was the best course of action. 

“Of course we can read, you imbecile! This happens to be my favourite book, if you must know.” He looked like he was about to say something else, but Leo interrupted him before he could.

“How strange... that happens to be my favourite book as well.”

“Wha- really?” Takumi’s surprise seemed to cause a lapse in his eternal hostility, before it returned in full force. “I’m shocked to hear you’re allowed to read about anything other than how to cause misery.”

“Actually, we’re not allowed to read at all. It promotes individual thinking.” Leo remarked in a matter-of-fact tone. Then, he said what he thought was possibly the stupidest thing he had ever said; “do you mind if I read with you?”

This was not, in fact, the stupidest thing Leo had ever said. And in terms of embarrassing things, it didn’t even make the top ten - for while he was careful and calculated with his words and outward appearance, he was also very socially awkward and had a tendency to say things other people found rather... odd.

Takumi, predictably, was not receptive to the idea.

“And why the fuck would I let you do that?”

“Would you believe me if I told you the truth?” 

You idiot, Leo, why on earth would you tell him the truth.

“Probably not. But try anyway.”

A deep breath. Here goes nothing, Leo thought.

“I wasn’t lying when I said we weren’t allowed to read. We have a library, but that’s strictly for use only by the highest ranking demons - of which I am not one. I use it regularly, but I have to be extremely careful about doing so. Thankfully, I had taken this book back to my room to read before I was caught. I was... punished, and the book was burned. It was the only copy.” Leo winced internally - he still had scars from his punishment.

“Why don’t you just get a copy from a human bookstore then?” Takumi obviously wasn’t buying Leo’s story, as he said he wouldn’t.

“Hell tortures all of its inhabitants, including us demons. They aim to remove all sense of spirit and individuality we might have; as such we are thoroughly searched when returning from a trip to Earth, as well as being monitored while on said trip, to avoid any, uh, contraband from entering Hell. So no, I cannot ever get another copy of the book.” Leo’s voice was strained - he had a passion for reading, and as such this was a rather sensitive topic for him.

“Oh,” said Takumi, quietly. Then, “okay then, I guess. I’m all for going against the rules of hell, so I’ll let you read with me. But just this once.”

Leo was dumbfounded; he couldn’t believe that Takumi, the angel who hated him with a passion and who he hated in return, was actually agreeing to them reading together. He was incredibly excited to read this book again, however, and as such tried to push away the awkwardness he felt sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with Takumi, reading the book that now lay open on the table.

A few pages in, Leo turned to Takumi and smiled, muttering a quiet “thank you” before turning back to the book.

He missed Takumi’s blush.

Takumi, meanwhile, was internally cursing himself. “Why on earth did I agree to this?” He thought. A sense of disgust crept up his spine at the sensation of sitting so close to a demon, to the enemy. Usually, Takumi did all he could to stop demons from causing chaos and harm, and here he was sitting with one! He was disgusted with himself. But at the same time, he felt sorry for this demon, who wasn’t allowed to read and had had his favourite book burned. Was that really how he lived, banned from having any individual thought? They ran into each other frequently when they were amongst the humans, always antagonising one another, and Leo had never made any indication as to his living situation - but never had they sat down and actually talked to each other like this. Perhaps they were both in an unusually good mood today, Takumi reasoned as he turned the page. But either way, he told himself he definitely wasn’t going to be here tomorrow.

*** 

When Leo walked into the coffee shop the next day, he was surprised to see Takumi sitting at his favourite booth again.

“Couldn’t keep away?” Leo asked with a smug grin.

“I must admit that while this place has its flaws - namely you - I find I quite like the solitude. Apparently Heaven does not monitor us angels in this part of the city,” came Takumi’s clipped answer.

“Oh?” Leo was intrigued. “They monitor you as well?”

“To prevent us from falling into temptation- or so they say.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“None of your business.”

“Well,” Leo sighed, “it seems as if we will be sharing this space for the time being. In that case - may I tempt you to a muffin? The ones they sell here are rather good.”

“What’s in it for you? I doubt you’d ever do something for anything other than your own personal gain.” Takumi was suspicious, and rightly so. Demons are not exactly known for their honesty and good hospitality.

Why was he doing this? If Leo was being completely honest, he was rather tired of fighting - he would much rather spend his time on Earth as a neutral party, basking in peace and quiet, reading his books away from the prying eyes of heaven and hell.  
But it’s not as if he could ever tell Takumi that.  
“Because if we’re going to sitting together, then I’d rather we not be seconds away from throwing punches the entire time. So. Muffin?”

The muffin was delicious, much to Takumi’s annoyance.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh sisters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally uploading a new chapter lmao, I hope I haven’t missed anything in editing

To each of their surprise, they continued to meet. Leo was privately delighted to have found not only one of the very few places on earth that was apparently good enough to be ignored by angels and bad enough to be ignored by demons, but someone there who was willing to regularly share a book with him. For the time being, he no longer had to take the risk of sneaking into the library in Hell. The only downside was that this person was Takumi but, well, Leo thought that he just might learn to live with that. Takumi wasn’t really that bad - how could he hate someone who had the same interests as he? Surely that proves they have excellent judgment, he mused.

Takumi, on the other hand, was in a state of shock. He felt as if he was locked in a constant mental battle with himself,  
desperately trying not to admit that spending time with Leo was actually nice. It was so much harder to continue viewing Leo as a cold, ruthless, mindless demon when over the weeks they had sat together in the cafe Leo was slowly but surely proving himself to be warm, kind, intelligent person. Takumi also noticed, with some curiosity, that Leo did his utmost to hide his positive qualities. It was probably because of the “evil” standard all demons were obliged to follow, Takumi reasoned. Not that he cared.

But Leo’s behaviour did remind him a bit of his own. Angels had standards to live up to as well, and Takumi often found himself biting back sharp retorts and reigning in his impulses and emotions in order to live up to them. Perhaps this was another thing he and Leo had in common...

Not that they had anything in common.

•••

After almost two months of sitting side by side in an icy, but slowly thawing, silence, Takumi finally admitted to himself that he did, indeed, enjoy Leo’s company. 

Please, pretend to be shocked. He put a lot of effort into repressing this realisation.

He started allowing himself to enjoy the time he and Leo spent together, relishing in how what used to be arguments turned into friendly debates, their once biting insults becoming affectionate teasing.

But this just made Takumi more afraid. Because, as much as they like to preach tolerance, angels are quite the hypocrites. If anyone found out that he had genuinely befriended a demon... Takumi shuddered to think of what would happen to him. And he knew their meetings must have been just as risky for Leo. And yet, even with this danger, Takumi found himself reluctant to give them up.

Finally finding someone he could call a kindred spirit must have really changed him, after all.

So Takumi tried to push the worry to the back of his mind, for while it was warranted there, frankly, wasn’t a whole lot he could do about it. He just tried to enjoy his time with the, and I quote, “insufferable asshole” Leo as much as possible. For a while, there was peace.

Then one day, Leo didn’t come.  



	3. Chapter 3

Leo didn’t come.


	4. Chapter 4

Leo didn’t come.


	5. Chapter 5

Leo didn’t come.


	6. Chapter 6

Leo came.

Leo came, but he looked as if he just barely survived the trip there. He staggered into the cafe, half-healed wounds littering his face and sticky, black blood dripping from arms, staining the hardwood floor. Takumi noticed with dawning horror that one of Leo’s horns had been sawn off, and none too gently - what was left of the base was visibly cracked even from where he sat. Leo stumbled to his knees as Takumi leapt from his seat, rushing through the crowds of oblivious humans.

“Leo!” Takumi felt as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head as he collapsed to his knees beside his friend. “Leo, what happened to you?”

“They know, Takumi,” Leo forced the words out with great effort, as if each one caused him pain. “They know you’re here. You have to run.”

Leo’s eyes closed then, and he pitched towards the floor before Takumi caught him, mind whirling with panic and nausea settling into the pit of his stomach.

They’ve found out. They know. They’re coming for them.

What can he do?

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on:  
Instagram: @tyrs_right_hand_ and @tyr_cosplay  
Tumblr: @tyrs-right-hand  
Twitter: @_bbrynhildr_


End file.
